Willie+Pearl+Walker

On June 1, 1926, Willie Pearl Walker, an 18-year-old Black homemaker born in Eaton, Georgia, died at her Chicago home from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. A white doctor, Thomas J. New, (most likely transcription error for Dr. Thomas J. Ney) was held by the coroner in Willie Pearl's death.

A little over two years later Ney was implicated in the November 14, 1928, death of 21-year-old Eunice McElroy. He was later implcated in the April 25, 1931 abortion death of Elma Bromps. There was abundant press coverage of the deaths of these two white women, but I have been unable to find any news coverage at all of Willie's death.

Willie's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a [|doctor].

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1920s].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Source:


 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]

include component="tagCloud"